NASA space copter ready for first Mars flight

NASA space copter ready for first Mars flight

The helicopter that NASA has placed on Mars could make its first flight over the Red Planet within two days after a successful initial test of its rotors, the US space agency said Friday. The current plan for the first-ever attempt at powered, controlled flight on another planet is for the four-pound (1.8 kilogram) helicopter, dubbed the Ingenuity, to take off from Mars' Jezero Crater on Sunday at 10:54 pm US eastern time (0254 GMT Monday) and hover 3 meters above the surface for a half-minute, NASA said.

"The helicopter is good, it's looking healthy,“ said Tim Canham, Ingenuity operations lead, in a press conference. "Last night, we did our 50 RPM spin, where we spun the blades very slowly and carefully,“ he said. The plan for today is to have it rise, flying only vertically, hover and rotate for 30 seconds to take a picture of the Perseverance rover, which touched down on Mars on February 18 with the helicopter attached to its underside.

Then the Ingenuity will be lowered back down onto the surface. The flight will be autonomous, pre-programmed into the aircraft because of the 15 minutes it takes for signals to travel from Earth to Mars, and also